League of Legends Developer Acquired by Tencent Holdings

Tencent Holdings, a Chinese operated Internet company, has acquired a majority stake in League of Legends developer Riot Games. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck explained the move and what will come next for Riot Games. Luckily, for the employees of Riot Games, it doesn't appear that anything will be changing. Beck notes that there are no planned leadership changes or redundancies and that Riot Games will continue to operate independently in what he clearly stated was an acquisition by Tencent Holdings.

Riot is going to remain completely independent. There are no redundancies, no layoffs, no synergy fishing, no leadership change," Beck said. In fact, Riot Games is remaining its own publisher in North America and Europe. "Nothing is going to change other than they're dramatically increasing their holding in the company.

A report from AllThingsD states that Tencent Holdings will pay around $400 million in the deal. The report also notes that Tencent Holdings has already invested upwards of $18 million in Riot Games. The centerpiece of interest in the deal is Riot Games's key asset, League of Legends.